The crises rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State took a new dimension on Monday as a group named “core Progressives ” dissociated themselves from a meeting held at the Bodija residence of a former of Governor of Oyo State, Otunba Adebayo Alao Akala.
The meeting was described as a forum for ambitions without any intention whatsoever of reconciling the aggrieved members of the party, the Chairman of the Core Progressives Forum, Pastor Olayemi Emmanuel, said in a statement in Ibadan on Monday that the meeting should be disregarded by the national secretariat of the party.
According to Vanguard, the group said, over 95 per cent of the attendees at the meeting were strangers to the progressive family and those mainly jostling for positions and undue political relevance without any progressive antecedents.
The group alleged that the intention of the meeting made up mainly of ultra-conservative politicians was to hijack the structures of the party with the aim of foisting one of them as the leader of the APC in Oyo State in order to hand over the party back to the People’s Democratic Party where they all came from in 2023.
According to Pastor Emmanuel, who explained that the statement was issued at the end of a review of the two separate meetings held by former Governor Akala and the Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Sunday Dare in Ibadan over the weekend, the core progressives in the state noted that “the meeting that former Governor Akala summoned under the pretext of reconciliation on Saturday in Ibadan in his residence has nothing to do with reconciliation. It has more to do with ambitions.”
The first ambition is the conspiracy to foist Akala on APC Oyo as a leader with Senator Teslim Folarin as the chair leader. Second ambition is to gather those gubernatorial ambitions together to design the hijack of the party.
And as far as the core progressives and ardent followers of political developments the Akala’s reconciliation meeting remains suspect”.
The Core Progressives Forum said, “were the people reconciled at the meeting? No. Rather we had the same party members who fell out with others at the meeting back-slapping and grinning.
“Where are the Unity group people? None of the known progressives and foundation leaders and members of APC across the zones of Oyo State was at the meeting”.
“Key party leaders from the immediate administration were all missing. APC Chairman was absent. Even the Minister of Youths and Sports who was in Ibadan and held a party consultative meeting a day earlier was conspicuously missing.”
” We as progressives know as a matter of fact that our leaders in the progressives in Oyo State would never fall prey to antics and deceits of the conservative politicians to take over our party under any guise and therefore urged the National Interim Committee and the National Reconciliation Committee for Imo, Oyo and Plateau States to totally disregard the Akala’s meeting as it was only meant to feather the nests of the conservative party, PDP.”
“Also, where is the full report of the reconciliation committee by Akala? Has it been submitted to the party and vetted? Akala’s gathering was one to feather nests. Not reconciliation,” the group concluded.
Vacancy
Are you an English Language graduate or an ND holder in Mass Communication ? Are you interested in building a career in the media industry? Call this number: 0808 389 4505 . We have a job for you.
